PROFILE: DAVID ROCKWELL


The venue will house 40,000sq ft of exhibition space and will slide open to create further space


LOOKING AHEAD Coming up, Rockwell Group has several high profi le projects, including a series of interior spaces at Battersea Power Station, London. Working with British architects Wilkinson Eyre, Rockwell is designing the lobby and atrium, as well as a separate market area. “That project is exciting on so many levels,” he says. “When I was a student at the Architectural Association in London, Battersea Power Station was such an icon. It’s an amazing building.” Another major project comes in the form of the Culture Shed, a multi-use cultural venue and performance space in New York’s Hudson District. Rockwell Group is working with Diller, Scofi dio + Renfro on the building, which is housed in a 200,000sq ft space on Manhattan’s Far West Side, at the intersection of the High Line and Hudson Yards. It will host a range of events, including exhibitions, festivals, fi lm, literary, culinary and fashion events, and could become the home for New York Fashion Week. The space includes 40,000sq ft of exhi- bition space and a large telescoping outer shed structure that slides open to create an


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I t ’s been a privilege working wi th Nobu. In some ways we complete each other


additional 17,000sq ft.“It’s by far the biggest thing we’ve ever done,” says Rockwell, before adding with a laugh: “It feels as though it’s been going on since the beginning of time!” Other forthcoming projects include a major


redesign of Newark Airport’s Terminal C. Meanwhile Rockwell Group’s LAB, the arm of the business focusing on the ‘intersection of physical space and the digital world’ is working on several projects, including the creation of interactive windows that represent a re-imagining of the tradition of corporate art for a midtown Manhattan offi ce building.


EARLY DAYS Rockwell was born in Chicago, and moved to Deal, New Jersey with his mother, step- father and four brothers when he was three,


where his lifelong passion for the theatre was ignited. “The Jersey Shore was a fascinating place to grow up; big houses, very little public realm – almost all of the activities took place in private homes,” he says. “I was intrigued by the things that were public, one of which was the community theatre, which my mom was a founder of. This one place where the community would come together and create and perform was very compelling to me.” When he was 12, the family moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, where the light, colour, spectacle and culture of the country had a huge impact on the young Rockwell. “It couldn’t have been more different from New Jersey. It’s really all about the public space in Mexico,” he says. After studying architecture at Syracuse University, Rockwell spent a year at the Architectural Association in London. He spent the next five years working in New York, before launching Rockwell Group in 1984. Rockwell Group started off primarily in hospitality, and quickly made a name for itself in restaurant and hotel design. Early on, Rockwell teamed up with the celebrated


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IMAGES OF THE CULTURE SHED COURTESY OF DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO IN COLLABORATION WITH ROCKWELL GROUP


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